Today, we learn that UPS has also decided to back out
and abandon the A380-800F. "Based on our previous discussions, we had
felt that 2012 was a reasonable estimate of when Airbus could supply this
plane," said UPS president David Abney. "We no longer are confident
that Airbus can adhere to that schedule."

UPS had 10 planes on order with the option to purchase 10
additional planes from Airbus, but it looks as though Boeing's 747 may be the
next best alternative for the shipping company. "It almost spells the
demise for that cargo business, because the alternative to the 380 is the
(Boeing) 747," said Chris Lozier, an analyst for Morningstar. "You
would expect UPS to be at the negotiating table with Boeing right now, if not
weeks ago, working out details for the 747."

The news comes just a week after Airbus announced that it
was cutting
10,000 jobs. In addition, French unions plan to strike next week in
response to the job cuts and German Airbus workers may also join in.

"The European Union could fine Microsoft up to $4 million USD per day for non-compliance with antitrust rulings"

...

"A two-year delivery delay on Airbus's A380 superjumbo damaged European pride and cost EADS 5 billion euros ($6.6 billion). The crisis was compounded by strategy errors on its next model, the A350, and a weak dollar that boosted Boeing." [Reuters]

($6.6bil / ($4mil/day)) = 4.52 years of Microsoft fines to cover the hole they made.

All new Vista customers should feel satisfied knowing that no matter how their new operating system works, at least they are saving Airbus :-)

No wonder the EU want stripped down Operating Systems - next they will be demanding lower retail prices for the lesser functionality - after all they dont want to be funding their own failures do they?